CVGS Program June 30: Infectious Diseases of the Civil War

The June program meeting of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society will be Wednesday, 30 June 2010, at 12 noon in the Conference Room at the Chula Vista South Branch Library (389 Orange Avenue, the southeast corner of Fourth and Orange). Please note the venue change for this meeting - it is at SOUTH BRANCH.

After a brief business meeting, Barbara Hemmingsen will present "Infectious Diseases of the Civil War." Her CV:

Barbara Bruff Hemmingsen earned a B.A. in Bacteriology, an M. A. in Microbiology, and a Ph.D. in Marine Microbiology from the University of California more years ago than she wishes to remember. She then did research in Environmental Microbiology and taught various lecture and laboratory courses in Microbiology at San Diego State University for 30 years.

When she retired in 2004, she began preparing her great, great-grandfather's letters for publication. Joseph Bruff wrote 240 letters to his wife during the Civil War when he served as an officer in the Union Army, 1862-1865. These letters contain a great deal of fascinating military, political, economic, health, and cultural information. As a microbiologist, Barbara was struck by the many references Joseph Bruff made to illnesses, his own and his men.

Her lecture "Infectious Diseases in the Civil War" will introduce the audience to the diseases which were common in America in the middle 1800s, and will provide an understanding of what it was like to live (and die) before the advent of modern medicine.

For more information about CVGS or this meeting, please contact Barbara I. by phone at 619-477-4140, or email at baribai@cox.net.

Please note that this program will be at Chula Vista South Branch Library (389 Orange Avenue)!